Jonathon Kelly – Twice Round The Houses  (1972)

Another great singer-songwriter that history has largely forgotten.  A short career for this Irish troubadour; just a couple as a solo artist before he formed a band Jonathon kelly’s Outside – one album and another solo and he called it a day.  But the two solo albums he made with RCA are really quite amazing.  This one was very lyrical and folky, a genre he later moved away from sadly.  I saw him in ’72 at the Roundhouse and was hooked by his gentle voice and compelling songs.  I wonder where all this promise went…but maybe it was just that all his great songs were used up on these two albums and he had nothing left in the tank; he stopped performing in 1976.  I think that Gilbert O’Sullivan suffered in the same way before settling into a very middle of the road style.  But at least we have these two albums, especially this one.  There is a real charm in these songs and his tales of ‘Sligo Fair’ and ‘The Ballad of Cursed Anna’ and the lovely ‘Madeleine’.  I have realised that not all artists are destined for fame and fortune or indeed longevity, but that doesn’t make their efforts any less worthwhile.  Jonathon died in 2020.